International Women’s Day 2015

International Women’s Day 2015

Picture: International Women’s Day

The 8th of March 2015 was marked as International Women’s Day.

In order to celebrate this day, WFTO-Europe worked on a three different levels, sharing stories from successful women from some of our European members, participating in a twitter event on the 6th of March and attending an event focused on the promotion of women’s leadership.

Women for change

To illustrate how fair trade helps empower women around the world, we would like to share with you the point of a Fair Trader.

Sophie Tack from Oxfam-Magasins du Monde (Belgium):

15 years ago, Sophie started working in Fair Trade. She is currently the director of the Partners-Campaign department of Oxfam-Magasins du monde, a Belgian organization and part of the Oxfam family. “I believe that trade can be a tool for development. But it has to be fair. Fair Trade empowers people.”

Sharing a connection with women producers in the southern hemisphere, she said that everyone can be an agent for change. “I work for Oxfam because I believe that change can happen if a global movement is behind it. Overcoming poverty requires active citizenship.

“We need to be more outspoken, be a clearer advocate for change. We need to increase our impact and strengthen our ability to influence.”

#FairForWomen Twitter Chat

In connection to the International Women’s Day, WFTO-Europe participated in #FairForWomen Twitter chat organized on the 6th of March 2015 by the Scottish Fair Trade Forum and the Young Women´s Movement (YWCA), in partnership with Oxfam Scotland and the Fairtrade Foundation. WFTO-Europe helped to raise awareness to the issue of how Fair Trade helps women, tried to explain why women are critical to sustainable development and much more.

Overall, (according to an article from the Scottish Fair Trade Forum) 300 different users posted over 900 times about #FairForWomen and there have been over 2.7 Million (and rising) impressions of tweets using the hashtag.

WFTO-Europe is happy to have participated in an event that helps to raise awareness about Fair Trade as a positive factor for women’s situation all over the world.

Promoting Women´s Leadership Project:

Photo: CEC European Managers

It is common knowledge that women are still underrepresented in senior and top managerial positions, but what is the actual state of play in Europe and what has been the speed of change over the last decade? To find some answers to these questions, WFTO-Europe participated in a Launch reception on European Project Report ´Promoting Women´s Leadership´, which took place on the 24th of February 2015.

By combining economic data analysis with a legal, comparative analysis, the project aimed to find actions to increase proportions of women in managerial positions as a means to face challenges of demographic change in the future. The project focused mainly on Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Sweden, the UK and Norway, non-EU member.

MEP Anna Hedth as well as Commissioner Sigried Caspar attended the event. Both of them expressed their support to the project and stressed how important the question of gender equality is for Europe´s future. You can read the report of the project here or visit the project´s website to learn more.

Our member’s campaigns : Artisans du Monde

Text and photo by Artisans du Monde

Demand a decent work for women : make a commitment with Artisans du Monde

On the occasion of International Women’s Day, Artisans du Monde puts forward decent work for women.

Through this campaign, Artisans du Monde seeks to end unacceptable working conditions for women around the world, and to show how the fair trade channels provide a concrete alternative by ensuring personal fulfillment and better working conditions, sources of economic and political emancipation of women.

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